‘The Monkey’ Swings to Neon’s Second Best Opening $14M

SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU Despite a B- CinemaScore, and a post-holiday weekend, Captain America: Brave New World isn’t imploding to the degree of The Marvels (-78%) and not as much as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (-70%) with a current -68% second drop or $28.2M.

Still, for a movie that fans don’t love — we’ll take that hold. With its lackluster exits, Brave New World was never expected to float like Deadpool & Wolverine (-54%) or Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (-48%). The pic counts a running total of $289.4M worldwide, and break-even off its $180M production cost sits around $425M worldwide.

The real story of the weekend was NEON‘s The Monkey with a C+ CinemaScore (same as Oz Perkins’ Longlegs) and a 2 1/2 star PostTrak which notched a $14.2M opening, the second best for the distrib behind last July’s Longlegs ($22.4M) also from Perkins. Also, as we mentioned, in a flood of horror films already YTD, i.e. Heart Eyes, Companion, etc, The Monkey has the best genre debut so far two months into 2025.

This all comes at a time when NEON’s Anora in the wake of top wins at the Indie Spirits yesterday, and DGA and PGA, is barreling toward a potential Best Picture Win at the Oscars. The Sean Baker directed and written high-class stripper with a heart of gold screwball comedy looks to seduce SAG today. Anora heading into Oscar week stands at $15.5M, Baker’s highest grossing movie ever at the domestic box office.

“This is a phenomenal debut for The Monkey. Masters of horror Osgood Perkins, James Wan and Stephen King crafted a shocking thrill ride that has subverted the horror genre and created a raucous good time for audiences across the country. Our second collaboration with Osgood gave us the opportunity to create a campaign that embraced the fun of the film and the collective rush audiences would experience in the theater. The Monkey is a singular film from a singular filmmaker, we look forward to it playing theatrically for weeks to come,” beamed Elissa Federoff, Chief Distribution Officer, NEON.

Fueling The Monkey‘s arrival to the higher-end of its weekend range was its 49% definite recommend with PostTrak audiences; that diagnostic always being a better indicator of word of mouth then PostTrak’s overall positive/star score.

For a movie that NEON took U.S. for in the high single digits, this is a very good result. C2 Motion Picture Group financed and produced.

Here’s the takeaway with The Monkey this weekend, to quote Louis Prima’s ape song: When it comes to opening horror movies, and NEON and A24; other studios wanna be like you, walk like you, talk like you. Other majors are trying to chase that low P&A, digitally driven spend (here it’s around $10M on The Monkey) and think that whatever number comes up, well, golly, it’s profitable.

Proof that the push for Monkey was digital: iSpot shows that NEON spent under $300K in linear TV across sports programming (SportsCenter, X Games, NBA, Men’s College Basketball). Tubular Labs shows a decent number of views promoting it on NEON’s YouTube with over 64 million views for the pic over the last 90 days. As Deadline told you first, Monkey owns the indie horror film trailer traffic record with 100M global views in its first 72 hours.

One studio went so far to show me once that the low marketing spend on their horror films yielded the same tracking results (in awareness/interest) as Longlegs‘ scores on opening day– but their movies fell apart. Why? Total rejection by the marketplace over the product was that studio’s defense.

In another instance, we have New Line’s vibrantly reviewed and received Companion opening to $9.3M, and then currently doing a 2.1 multiple to a current $20M domestic (the Zach Cregger produced movie only had an 18-day theatrical window before hitting digital). Warners post firing their marketing czar Josh Goldstine spent very little in stateside P&A on the film (the global spend of which we heard was $29M). Then why couldn’t Warners hit an opening like The Monkey?

Here’s what’s going on: NEON, A24 and even Cineverse with Terrifier 3 know how to dynamite and speak to a genre audience. They know how to spend low, and create excitement via guerrilla means and on a ground level. Other studios when it comes to horror P&A vs. box office yields can’t even get the lid off a jar of smelling salts and awake to a reality. In the case of the studio that spent the same as NEON, and had similar scores to Longlegs, the failure there is simply a bad marketing campaign: it failed to convince the audience to come out.

In regard to Companion, there are those in town who feel that an opportunity was greatly missed on a movie with a B+ CinemaScore, 94% Rotten Tomatoes score and 4 stars on PostTrak. Screen Gems/Spyglass’ Heart Eyes with lower scores is actually making more than the Companion, now at $26.7M domestic. That shouldn’t be. While there’s a business sensibility to spend low on a low-budget movie (Companion around $10M), there are rivals who feel that more needed to be spent on Companion, if the studio was taking a traditional approach to the film. Either that, or if you want to emulate NEON and A24, rebuild your street teams and guerilla efforts and create a stir on TikTok. Warners made magic once before with their Barbie memes which took off like a rocket ship months before that Margot Robbie film hit theaters. What was it hard to create a frenzy with Companion? We also hear that internally CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels has mandated that only movies over a certain budget threshold receive an opulent spend. To that point, the $100M+ Mickey 17 we understand is creeping beyond a $20M+ opening start.

The Monkey was produced by James Wan’s Atomic Monster with Tom Quinn, Peter Safran, Fred Berger EP’ing. Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Chris Ferguson also produced. The Monkey pulled in 58% men, with 30% of the audience between 18-24 years old, 35% of the audience between 25-34 years old (biggest demo) and 30% of the audience 35+ years old with the largest quad being the 25-34 at 35%.  Diversity turnout was 43% Caucasian, 29% Latino and Hispanic, 17% Black, 7% Asian & 5% NatAm/Other. The Monkey‘s grip on PLF screens provided 12% of the weekend business. Best markets are South Central (natch for a horror film) with AMC Burbank the top multiplex stateside with $54K through Saturday night. Moviegoers were engaging with the 8’ monkey in the lobby, I’m told. Other top cities were LA, NYC, San Francisco, Dallas and Houston.

Among other marketing highlights for The Monkey were custom wipes/smelling salts handed out at screenings to prevent fainting, chimp figurines sent out to social media creators, the Mausoleum Screening at Hollywood Forever Cemetery for them as well, the LA Premiere at Immanuel Church with a merch pop-up shop as well as a killer outdoor campaign.

Let’s not forget the AMC popcorn bucket…

Lionsgate/Kingdom Story’s Unbreakable Boy didn’t move the needle with $890K Friday, a $2.5M opening off an A CinemaScore. Positive score 91% and an 80% definite recommend with 60% women buying tickets. Seventy percent of the audience was over 35 with 42% over 55 ala faith-based. Diversity demos were 70% Caucasian, 20% Latino and Hispanic, 2% Black and 4% Asian. Any cash was in the Midwest and Mountain regions with the Cinemark Yuba City CA the best venue at close to $11K so far. Do faith-based movies still have a prayer at the box office?

The chart updated with Sunday figures:

10.One of Them Days (Sony) 1,104 (-253) theaters, Fri $410K Sat $645K Sun $355K 3-day $1.4M (-52%) Total $46M/Wk 6
To date, it’s a near 4x multiple for the SZE and Keke Palmer R-rated female comedy.

FRIDAY PM: Neon’s The Monkey is headed to the Oscar winning indie distributor’s second highest opening of all-time between $12M-$14M after what’s shaping up to be a Friday that’s north of $5M at 3,200 theaters. That’s good enough for second place. Of course these R-rated horror movies find their business in the latter hours of the night.

With a social media universe of 154.5M across TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook and Instagram before opening, The Monkey‘s online reach is pacing 16% above horror genre norms per RelishMix “in a sea of NEON Anora materials, in that race for Oscar”.

Overall positive word of mouth says RelishMix with “horror fans flocking around the latest from writer/director Oz Perkins. After Neon’s success with his last horror film Longlegs, fans are sharing their enthusiasm for their next cinematic pairing, exclaiming ‘Oz Perkins loves to scare us… I’m so ready for this after Longlegs,’ and, ‘Neon are really stepping it up these past few years.’ plus, ‘Oz has truly crafted his own style and brand of horror.’ Many are seeing comparisons in other horror hits, sharing, ‘this movie is essentially Final Destination meets Stephen King,’ and, ‘This looks like it’s gonna out-Final Destination Final Destination.’

The trailer, which scored record traffic for an indie horror movie, stoked great excitement, as fans loved Elijah Wood cameos, and were sold on the image of the lady running with the stroller on fire.

Disney/Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World at 4,105 is seeing a second Friday of $7.5M for a take in the mid to high $20Ms. Among Disney MCU movies, The Marvels owns the worst second weekend drop at -78% off a B CinemaScore. Brave New World was B-. At $29M, that’s a -67% decline. Running ten-day total by EOD Sunday at the high end resides at $142M.

Third goes to StudioCanal/Sony’s Paddington in Peru with a second Friday of $1.4M, 3-day around $6M, -53%, for a running cume of $24.7M by Sunday

Fourth is DreamWorks Animation/Universal’s Dog Man at 3,179 sites with a fourth Friday of $1.2M, 3-day of $5.2M (-47%) and running total by Sunday of $78M. The pic hit digital on Tuesday.

Fifth is China’s animated sequel Ne Zha 2 at 800 sites with a second Friday of $850K, 3-day of $3M, -60% and 10-day of $14.8M.

Lionsgate’s faith-based Unbreakable Boy at 1,687 sites is seeing $850K Friday, $2.2M 3-day.

FRIDAY AM: There have been a lot of horror films in the last month and a half, but Neon’s The Monkey is on its way to posting the best opening for a horror movie YTD with $12M-$14M this weekend after $1.9M previews. That number for the Oz Perkins-directed movie includes advance screenings.

For Neon, which shot to box office heights with Perkins’ pic last summer, Longlegs, with $3M previews and a $22.4M opening, The Monkey‘s previews are the second best for the distributor. The Monkey‘s previews in total are higher than the $1.7M clocked by New Line’s critically acclaimed and audience fave Companion, which settled for a $9.3M opening.

Quorum says this AM that The Monkey climbed to higher awareness than Longlegs before opening on what was a traditional campaign (read, Neon hid the killer in its Longlegs promos in a clever YouTube short clip stunts, whole the Monkey is natch everywhere to be found in its push for the Perkins film, from one sheets to eight-foot size chimps in multiplex lobbies), however, “interest is seven points lower for The Monkey, which points to a mid-teen opening.” The 18-34 bunch showed up at 63% per Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak starting at 7PM last night when previews began. P&A spend for The Monkey was around $10M, the same as Longlegs. RT audience score on The Monkey is 73% to a solid critical score of 80% certified fresh.

More excitement for Neon this weekend beyond box office: Their Cannes Film Festival-winning movie Anora is also up for Best Feature at the Film Independent Spirit awards tomorrow and Best SAG ensemble on Sunday. Should that Sean Baker movie score those top prizes, it’s just more momentum after DGA and PGA wins toward Oscar’s Best Picture….

Among regular ranked movies, Disney/Marvel Studios’ Captain America: Brave New World led Thursday with an estimated $3.2M, -5% from Wednesday, ending its first week with $113M at 4,105 theaters. The Anthony Mackie movie is expected to lead the box office again in its second frame with a $30M+ take.

Lionsgate has the Kingdom Story movie The Unbreakable Boy which is 43% with critics and a mid-1000 theater break. It’s expected to file in the single digits.

Sony/StudioCanal’s Paddington in Peru did $737K yesterday at 3,890, -2%, for a first week of $18.7M.

Universal/DreamWorks Animation’s Dog Man is third for the week with $15.8M at 3,335 locations, after $668K yesterday and a running cume through week 3 of $72.8M.

Fourth for the week belongs to Screen Gems/Spyglass’ Heart Eyes with $12.3M second week at 3,102 theaters, $388K estimated yesterday and running total of $23.9M.

CMC Chinese billion-plus global grossing animated sequel Ne Zha 2 ends its first week with $11.8M at 660 locations after a $592K Thursday.